STAMFORD -- An unemployed hairdresser accused of knocking out a Darien woman's teeth with a tire iron in November pleaded not guilty to a felony assault charge Tuesday at state Superior Court in Stamford. Rhiannon Noell Stefanick, 23, of 90 Deerfield Drive, Greenwich, was arraigned on a charge of first-degree assault.

Stefanick and her public defender, Barry Butler, elected a jury trial at her hearing before Judge Richard Comerford. Butler declined comment on the case. Stefanick is to return to court Feb. 14.

According to her arrest affidavit, police were called to the front of Liberation House, a Main Street drug treatment facility, at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 12, where a woman was attacked by another with a metal bar. A witness said a light blue car was parked across the street for an hour or more before the victim crossed Relay Place toward Liberation House.

The man said he saw a woman get out of the car and strike the victim several times in the face and head with what appeared to be a 10-inch long bar, the affidavit said.

The assailant then drove off, leaving the Darien woman lying on the sidewalk, the report said.

At Stamford Hospital, , she told police that she had gotten several threatening phone calls since she had met a man a week earlier. The woman told police that she believed they were coming from the man's ex-girlfriend.

In a statement that the woman had to type because she could not speak clearly, she said she remembered a woman walking up to her and saying "I told you not to mess with my man." The next day, the woman was able to pick out Stefanick's picture.